Oxford Commercial Property Consultancy News

Harwell Campus is to develop 190,000 sq ft of new industrial and research buildings at its Oxfordshire scheme, in the largest speculative commercial development the county has ever seen.

In today's Property Week it was announced: "The Zephyr building is a multi-let building of 60,000 sq ft, and will be accompanied by two sister buildings of 40,000 sq ft each, designed for single or dual occupation. These buildings will complement the 50,000 sq ft Quad One office scheme that is currently under construction.

The new buildings will be incremental to the existing Runway buildings of 90,000 sq ft which are being refurbished. The total value of these developments will be more than £80m.

They will provide light industrial and research and development space, similar to the Genesis building on the campus which was completed in 2016 but with enhanced elevations and architectural quality.

Harwell, which is a public private partnership between Harwell Oxford Partners, U+I Group and two Government backed agencies, will market the buildings as headquarters locations where all functions, from production to marketing, can be co-located on a campus with ample room to expand.

Tenant demand is such that Harwell expects to have substantially pre-let these schemes prior to planned completion and is already making preparations for another 100,000 sq ft building, to be delivered by the end of 2018.

William Cooper, partner at Harwell Campus Management, said: “We are very happy to share the success and expansion of organisations already on campus and equally, we are thrilled that external organisations are also seeing the many benefits that Harwell that can offer them. The campus is witnessing the most significant growth seen in this sector anywhere in the UK at the present time, creating a European innovation district comparable to MIT in the US.”

Tom Edgerley, development director at U+I Group, said: “U+I is proud to be part of the Harwell team and investing in the growth of the UK’s science and technology economy. Bringing like-minded organisations together at Harwell has already proven beneficial to the many businesses on site and the new space will provide an exciting opportunity to nurture more innovation on campus.”